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Thought I'd put this up for anyone looking for an alternative route to go about the ROTJ blaster. Started with the basic Hasbro green and grey monstrosity, wow that thing is ugly, but it does clean up nicely! Don't have a shot of how I got it, but we've all seen it and shuddered. My plan was to leave as little of it as possible, size it back up and make it look like a respectable blaster Boba would be proud to carry. Took a while LOL
Here is is disassembled, along with the electronics I kept working, the new barrel and the barrel ring.

Assembled, with scope, muzzle and various filling

Coat of black on it, starting to look like something

With T track from Blastech installed

Not quite done, but needed to make it work for my 501st profile pic, so a head on shot

The stock finally, made by rescaling images of the screen used blaster and the using that as a template to trace and cut a 3 layer mdf press board basic shape. The middle layer was constructed to accommodate the stock attachment D handle that came with the Hasbro, makes it fit perfectly, and is removable for transportation. All 3 layers were glued and screwed together for the ultimate hold. Then it was sanded to be an all one piece unit, spot putty to fill it all in and it was in business

And the finished blaster with paint. Still slightly undersized (9 - 10%) but pretty serviceable and has working sound and light to boot, pretty pleased with the outcome. Stock greeblies suppliedby Asok, thanks again man!! All in, $30 for the Hasbro, $20 for the T track, $7 for the scope, $8 for the greeblies, $5 for materials (I already had most) So for $70 total hard to beat!

Goodaye team - there are some incredibly talented artists with the TDH world. Do any of these folks provide Hasbro EE-3's painted or converted - to enable us lesser talented people to owe a great blaster rifle? Any advice is greatly received as I only need the rifle and a holster to complete my ESB rig. Cheers - Darrin

Thanks Syper! I can't stand the spray painted "real blasters" that have flooded through from ebay either, untouched, this blaster is junk, as is its WAY too small. Mine would be a bit smaller then the real deal, but adding an 8" barrel, and nearly full size stock makes it considerably better.

Mmm... I wonder if the 501st accepts Hasbro toy guns as prop blasters? Look even if you fix it up a bit it's still a toy that was purchased at a store. Perfectly fine for a kids suit or a budget build going to a Halloween party, but beyond that one should really upgrade their EE3 blaster. Here's my fist Fett blaster I assembled from a kit I picked up here in the cargo hold Attachment 76799

My assembled EE3 kit is not perfect but a member here took his love and passion for Fett and created this kit. I opened a box full of parts and sanded, filled in molding pits/holes, sanded over and over, painted and weathered it. When all is said and done, I'm holding a blaster that two TDH members made with our own hands and those holding a Hasbro gun are just holding a toy.

So Syper, are you saying the complete re haul of my blaster, only actually using the handle and D frame of the Hasbro starting point, is no good simply because it was once a toy blaster? You see the work put into it right? This isn't slapping a coat of black paint on it, its cutting the entire thing apart and only using about a tenth of it, that includes light and sound (also improved) But all that doesn't matter because I'm just holding a toy? I'm trying to understand what it is you're meaning, if thats directed towards me, or someone who just tries to troop with an unaltered or repainted only hasbro.

100% nothing personal ever Brother! You have done the best customization, rebuild paint and weathering of that gun, I have ever seen. My disdain is for the Hasbor Fett gun itself mainly because it IMO diminishes the work that so many have done to build our own EE3's in the pass. Now if someone say a new fan doesn't know any better, they may think their buying a move prop gun when in fact they are buying a painted toy and being taken. I'm also concerned that when in need of an EE3 the option to buy this toy will be the easy solution and less and less are we going to see members making them.

I don't like that there's even an option to buy this item really, whereas in the pass if you wanted one you had to make it for yourself it could not be found at a local store. There is much much more to learn when building a prop gun when doing so from scratch.

Last example, let's take the jetpack. What happens when the next few SW movies come out and Disney/Hasbro pushes out a toy jetpack that's just in time for Christmas? One - we will All, myself included go out and buy one. Two - sales for the members who do make great kits will fall. Three - we will soon see painted Hasbro jetpacks for sale on eBay as movie props. Four - MOW and others sales of JP's will fall even more and then they will just stop making their kits. We lose! The market it flooded with these Hasbro painted prop guns and it sucks.

I think by now you have a better understanding as to where I'm coming from. It's not good for the prop building community when the big box stores start selling items we make.

Figured I would chime in on this one as I to myself did a mod on a hasbro EE-3, (check out my thread) though most of the pictures have been deleted the finished photos are still there. Ok yes we all know the hasbro is a really, really bad representation of the EE-3 but it can be made to look like a really good blaster. All you have to do is get the juices goin and the skies the limit. In my case I pretty much took it down to the bear minimum and started there. I did my research getting every measurement as close as I could and after finishing it and taking it to comic con it looks pretty close to what the pro's are doing. In the end I was happy with it and that's all that matters.

On buying what I call a (true blaster) hyperfirm, sidewinder, these are the cream of the crop and have every right to be. But are by no means cheap, if it comes to me spending $150 (what I spent on mine) as a posed to spending between $350 an up for a better one I choose to take the road less traveled. In the end do whatever is gonna make you happy that's all that really matters.

Also Fett 4 Real instead of coming into someone's thread and just knocking someone's work brother (which you tend to do)maybe you could say nice work, or great job.

I kind of agree on the whole about Hasbro being detrimental to propmakers' sales, however given the price these works of art are sold at (and rightly so), many budget Fetts can't afford it either way, myself included. Those without the skill to build one completely from scratch won't have a blaster for their costume. And some may even be put off doing the costume altogether. Initially I wanted to do an ESB Fett, but the sidearm was an added expense that I couldn't afford on my budget. And with no real ability to scratch build one (or mod an existing Hasbro product), I changed my mind to do the SE version. Once I'm finished, time will tell whether I'm as happy with the SE version compared to ESB.

Also Fett 4 Real instead of coming into someone's thread and just knocking someone's work brother (which you tend to do)maybe you could say nice work, or great job...

What you did right there is one of the biggest problems in the customization/build progress parts of the prop community: being bashful of criticism for fear of hurting someone's feelings, and this is by no means any dig against you, at all. But this is why certain custom costumes are coming out of the woodwork made out of cheap kids-craft materials with Hot Rod flames painted on them, or paint jobs that are nowhere near screen accurate because their progress threads are plastered with nothing but "Wow, awesome!" and "OMG, fantastic!". It stifles improvement and innovation, and it shows. 5 year olds that come home with crazy doodles are supposed to hear "Wow, awesome job sweetie!"...not adults trying to recreate screen accurate costumes on a message board designed for the sole purpose of creating screen accurate costumes.

Think about it...when you have 3 pages of pat-on-the-backs, and no one is saying "Hey brother, you may want to rework the...", you think your suit/blaster/etc. is the bee's knees.

And there's no reason to be mean about it either. I'm not saying for ANYONE to march into a thread and tell someone "Wow, this stinks, throw that in the trash and try again buddy", but constructive, guided criticism is important.

Army, you also made the point that the "cream of the crop" blasters are expensive. Absolutely...and rightly so. You get what you pay for, period. There's no shame in waiting another couple months and not trooping with your Boba for a convention to save up and hone in your costume with quality parts that are accurate.

Syper said:

Last example, let's take the jetpack. What happens when the next few SW movies come out and Disney/Hasbro pushes out a toy jetpack that's just in time for Christmas? One - we will All, myself included go out and buy one. Two - sales for the members who do make great kits will fall. Three - we will soon see painted Hasbro jetpacks for sale on eBay as movie props. Four - MOW and others sales of JP's will fall even more and then they will just stop making their kits. We lose! The market it flooded with these Hasbro painted prop guns and it sucks.

Unfortunately Syper, I can't agree with you on this one brother. This is a hobby, a hobby where NONE of the replica vendors own the rights to. If Hasbro pumps out ****-poor packs, blasters, armor, etc...we can tell, and so can the detail-oriented members of this board. Sure, they'll take a few sales away from the greats on here, but that's the nature of the business...we shouldn't impede on the company's rights to profit just to be nice to the guys on this board that make the quality stuff. They'll be fine, I promise.

Unfortunately Syper, I can't agree with you on this one brother. This is a hobby, a hobby where NONE of the replica vendors own the rights to. If Hasbro pumps out ****-poor packs, blasters, armor, etc...we can tell, and so can the detail-oriented members of this board. Sure, they'll take a few sales away from the greats on here, but that's the nature of the business...we shouldn't impede on the company's rights to profit just to be nice to the guys on this board that make the quality stuff. They'll be fine, I promise.

Yeah Np Ponte, I do agree with your points and I have no issues with "company's rights to profit" the larger point I was making with my example is how it would suck to see a growing number of Fetts running around with 3/4 sized painted Hasbro JetPacks and calling it all good, just as we have seen with the toy-EE3 blaster. Sure sales for builders making quality packs would be impacted and we would see fewer and fewer runs but your right they would be ok. As we all know in the past if you wanted a quality EE3 blaster you had to either pony up the cash for a Master Replica, buy a pre-built EE3, buy a kit, or scratch build it using templates. All options very doable first two just requiring money if you had it but the other options forced the would be prop builder to actually “build it” or do the work themselves. Building an EE3 blaster for yourself is the best experience a prop builder can have, but starting with a pre-made EE3 toy imo is the very very easy (cheap / cheater) route to take that many new or inexperienced members are taking and are somehow hoping that we are going to like their toy conversion.

Sorry but if anyone is converting toys into movie props, that’s just sad IMO.

Last note I’ll leave you with – My custom Mando build

I’m planning on having two or three trophy light sabers on my belt and the thought of converting toy sabers has never even crossed my mind! It would be an easy starting point but that’s not the point of being a prop builder. I love that this hobby weeds out the lazy people or at least it should. If members want a low low budget build all good, I hope they have fun at their Halloween party but they should never think that painted toys are going to give members much love around here, ITS NOT.

Mmm... I wonder if the 501st accepts Hasbro toy guns as prop blasters?

Blasters themselves aren't required for costume acceptance in the 501st for any costume. Reasoning is that other countries have different weapon laws than ours does, and so nobody even technically needs a blaster at all to join the 501st.